For purposes of making cabinets and other precision fabrications from wood and other materials there is a requirement the workpieces be held in a spatial relationship with each other so that they can be fastened together. For example, the face frame of a cabinet, to which the cabinet door is secured by a hinge, is comprised of, in general, several workpieces of rectangular stock. Generally, these workpieces are fastened together at right angles in such a way as to define the various cabinet openings over which the cabinet doors are placed.
There are some commercially available clamping arrangements which can be used to hold one workpiece in a fixed position relative to another workpiece so that the workpieces can be fastened together. These devices generally have several clamping means, each clamping means for securely holding one of the workpieces in a predetermined orientation with respect to the other workpiece so that they may be fastened together with appropriate fastening means.
There also presently exists a face framing table where the various members of the face of a cabinet can be laid out and held in place by, for example, air-actuated clamps. Normally, screws and/or staples are used to secure the individual members of the frame together. When screws are used, one of the two members to be joined is removed to a table which has a drill jig and drill so that appropriate bores can be made in the member. The member is then repositioned on the framing table and screws are placed through the bores to fasten the members together. These steps are repeated until the entire face of the cabinet is assembled.
It is to be understood that none of the above prior art devices affords an arrangement where not only can the members be clamped in the final arrangement, but also the appropriate bores made and fasteners attached to make a final connection without having to, as in the case of the face framing table, remove the members to a second location to provide the necessary bores. Further, it is to be understood that some of the prior art clamping arrangements, while allowing two members to be joined in a perpendicular relationship such as, for example, that of a "T," do not have the versatility of allowing members to be joined together in, for example, a "cross" orientation. In addition, the face framing table is quite expensive to purchase and requires a large scale cabinet operation to be justified economically.